Blaze damages SF Pier 29, central to America’s Cup

A waterfront building being converted for next year’s America’s Cup yacht race was severely damaged Wednesday by a fire that spewed thick smoke over the bay and stopped traffic along San Francisco’s Embarcadero for hours.

The blaze broke out at the warehouse building on Pier 29 at 1:50 p.m. and escalated to four alarms before 110 firefighters contained it nearly two hours later. At its height, with flames leaping through the roof, throngs of passers-by watched chunks of the Neoclassical entryway crash to the street.

Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said three-quarters of the front section of the nearly century-old building was destroyed. But crews stopped the blaze’s advance before it reached the rear portion or any adjacent structures on the triangular pier that juts into the water at the foot of Telegraph Hill.

The concrete-and-wood pier had been unoccupied for months while construction crews reconstructed it to host spectator services for the America’s Cup. Nobody was injured in the fire. The cause is under investigation.

Not suspicious

Police spokesman Officer Albie Esparza said the fire “doesn’t appear to be suspicious at this time,” but cautioned that it was too soon to tell how it started.

Among the uses planned for Pier 29 during the America’s Cup are food concessions and an exhibit marking handbag and shoemaker Louis Vuitton’s 30-year collaboration with the yacht race. Cup organizers said the fire wouldn’t affect their plans.

The blaze apparently broke out in the front of the structure and quickly spread to the roof, Hayes-White said. Firefighters attacked it with hoses from all sides of the building, using trucks on the street and a fireboat in the bay, avoiding the roof as much as possible for fear of it collapsing. It took until 3:30 p.m. for firefighters to contain the blaze.

As the fire hit its peak, the massive Pier 29 sign hanging over the arched entrance to the building crashed to the ground, followed a few minutes later by another chunk of concrete from the entrance.

Crowds gather

Emergency officials blocked off the Embarcadero from Broadway to Bay Street throughout the afternoon and evening. With traffic stopped, large crowds gathered to watch the battle.

The blaze also affected Muni service in the area, with the F-line historic streetcars being turned around at the Ferry Building.

Area residents were dismayed at seeing such a prominent part of their landscape savaged by flames.

“If there was going to be a devastating fire anywhere on the waterfront, this would be the worst place to have it,” said Jon Golinger, president of the Telegraph Hill Dwellers neighborhood association. “It’s front and center on San Francisco’s waterfront. This is the main place where tourists come.”

He said the neighborhood association has been fighting for years to preserve Pier 29 for public use.

“It’s incredibly sad to see it go up in a puff of smoke,” he said.

Dates from 1915

The pier was built in 1915 as part of a design competition with New York City and has about 115,000 square feet of warehouse space. All tenants were moved out before work began last winter on the demolition of the adjacent Pier 27 for that pier’s use as a cruise ship terminal.

“Pier 29 is pretty much an empty shed right now,” said Renee Martin, Port of San Francisco spokeswoman. “We have no tenants.”

Construction workers did use the building for parking, she said.

Despite the damage, officials are hopeful the blaze won’t hinder preparations for the America’s Cup. Monique Moyer, port executive director, said efforts would be made to reconstruct the artful facade of the arched entryway.

“There does not appear to be anything that will impact the city’s ability to host the America’s Cup or on construction of the new cruise terminal,” said Christine Falvey, spokeswoman for Mayor Ed Lee.

The America’s Cup organization issued a statement before the flames were even extinguished, saying, “We do not anticipate that this will have any impact on our plans for the site, and we look forward to moving ahead with the future construction of the America’s Cup village at Pier 27/29.”

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers John King and Rachel Gordon contributed to this report. Kevin Fagan and Vivian Ho are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: kfagan@sfchronicle.com, vho@sfchronicle.com